Fractale Episode 11: Paradise

The ambitious series ends in blood, death, and an extremely emotional ending that upset more than a few viewers online. With the future of humanity on the line, will Clain be forced to watch the love of his life die? Fractale: Reiterated concludes with HD screen captures and revised text.

With too much of a story to fit in twelve episodes, Fractale ends up with only eleven, consequently making this powerful finale densely packed with exposition and action. It is frustrating that this series was rejected by otakus in Japan and one has to wonder what could have been if it they had embraced it. As it is, we are left with this rushed, but conclusive ending to Clain’s journey toward adulthood and the final fate of the Fractale system.

The final episode picks up right where the previous one left off, with a shocked Clain and Nessa being confronted by Barrot. In an effort to protect the feisty doppel, Phryne sends her through the barrier to Clain. However, the Temple’s resident scientist and lecher alters the barrier with a wave of a hand so they can hear everything. If there was ever any doubt he was a sadist at heart, that is erased by his “free lesson” to Clain about the secrets of Phryne and Fractale’s God. Amazingly, the character becomes even more despicable than before.

Barrot verifies much of what we have already been shown but fills in the details. After the original Key was created, the body and soul were split for safekeeping. But after around 700 years of working, the “key failed to fit the keyhole” and the Fractale system began to decay. The Temple extracted the mind of God (Nessa) and tried to insert it into clones made from the tissue of the original girl. The implications of what happened to the original Phryne is rather ghastly and once again reminds me of human sacrifices in primitive cultures.

When the Temple scientists downloaded the mind, they found it to be that of a ten year old so they created ten year old clones to house it. Many attempts were made and all failed resulting in the deaths of thousands of Phrynes over the centuries. Eventually, the job fell on Barrot and he took “pity” on some of the girls and adopted them.

Of course, the Phryne we know was one of them and we have a pretty good idea of how they were treated. But Barrot discovered something that had eluded his predecessors – that the God of Fractale had been sixteen, not ten. She had created a ten year old split personality to hide within due to a “certain experience.”

Cue the opening credits and the title of the episode, Paradise. At this point, it would appear to be an ironic title since everything is going wrong. While the “lesson” is going on, the Granites search for their friends and stop Dias from killing them. Speaking of the devil, Dias has his hands full since the battle is not going well.

Sir Barrot is enjoying himself far too much and gloats more than even the most stereotypical villain. He made sure sixteen year old Phryne had the same traumatic experience the original endured. Clain is either in denial or hopelessly naïve, so the pervert spells it out to him. This makes Phryne even more miserable because she obviously didn’t the boy she loves to know about it. Sticking the proverbial knife in, the abuser flaunts his relationship with Phryne and taunts Clain. He suddenly shuts up as the sound of a real knife going in is heard.

YES! FINALLY! It is a superbly stunning scene as Phryne mortally wounds the monster while in a fugue state. The reaction of Nessa is particularly well done, as is the older girl’s reaction when she snaps out of the state and see’s what she has done. The fact that it took the humiliation of Clain by Barrot to provoke this says a great deal about what he means to her. Phryne runs off screaming, leaving a frozen Clain behind. With Clain unable to react, Nessa runs after the distraught priestess.

And Barrot?  He manages to keep going on whining while dying. Not even dying manages to shut him up.

Poor Phryne. She’s run off again and is alone in the midst of a Shakespearean melt down. It has all become too much to handle and she’s cracking wide open.

Fortunately, she really isn’t as alone as she thinks.  Dear, sweet Nessa finds and comforts the tormented girl. In an odd moment, she licks a tear from Phryne’s face like a pet animal would with an upset master. Perhaps she took Barrot’s talk of “love” literally after seeing him lick Phryne at the end of the last episode. But I think the intent is to be pet like, dealing with a situation she really can’t understand but wanting to help. Having been helped by the younger girl, Phryne is now able to pull it together when Nessa begins to disappear. With Fractale failing, so is the little redhead. With sudden resolve, Phryne leads her toward the sound of priestesses singing.

So many emotional intense moments already in the finale and we haven’t gotten close to the biggest yet.

So where’s Clain during all this? He’s running down a corridor and hallucinating Barrot being in front of him. So he’s cracking too.  But like Phryne, somebody comes along to snap him out of it. In this case it is tough love, not comfort, when Enri calls his manhood into question in an awesome verbal kick to the seat of Clain’s pants. Thanks to her, he finds his motivation and it is the realization that there is something he needs to say to Phryne.

Bad things are happening to secondary characters too. Nobody is getting out unscathed.  Showing that what goes around comes around, Dias the expert at betrayal is betrayed in turn by other L.M. factions. Elsewhere, Sunda finds Enri, Clain, and Takami to give orders. The Danan is now to be commanded by his little sister and Takami is to escort her. From Enri’s expression, it is clear what is to come.  I never thought I’d end up caring so much about the little hellion.

Everyone is drawn by the singing to a central chamber where Moeran is up to something big. It is the ceremony of God Creation mentioned last episode and Clain is very upset that Phryne has once again decided things on her own. Then a bloodied Dias shows up and everything begins to go to pieces.

The fate of Fractale and the world will be decided at last, but what will happen to our heroes?

Thoughts

The final episode of Fractale is very well paced, despite the huge amount of events going on.  The direction carefully places slower moments to give us a chance to catch our breath while simultaneously building up emotional tension. But that emotional tension is what I think caused quite a few viewers to have a visceral reaction and miss the details at the very end.  Those details are extremely critical in understanding the ending. More on that can be found in the spoilers section.

In fact, it is those misunderstandings about the ending that inspired me to write these episode reviews. It is something of an apology (defense) of Fractale as a whole.  Far too much of the story went way over the heads of anime fans and I admit I’m disappointed with that. Which is why this review is more extensive than normal for a twenty odd minute anime in order to explain what actually happened in the finale.

In the end, Fractale turned out to be an excellent series and my favorite anime series of all time. It can be classified as that rarity, a thinking man’s anime. The tone and material are all aimed at older teens and adults with a few missteps along the way. Much like the darker Miyazaki films such as Princess Mononoke, it doesn’t flinch away from the ugly things and, in fact, they drive the characters.

I ended up getting very attached to the main characters in the series and am surprised how much I miss them after watching it. It has been years since I’ve felt this way after a finale and that’s a tribute to the writing. From January to April of 2011, they were a weekly part of my life and watching it again has stirred up those feelings.  It is a great pity we won’t see anything more done with the fictional world created. There was so much more to explore.

The ending is slightly different in the English dub and much of what is implied is spelled out in the new dialogue. Except, perhaps, for the very end.

BEWARE! SPOILERS BE AHEAD!!!

 

 

 

 

The last act by Sunda telling Clain to make the decision and that it would be the decision of the Granites was a very touching moment. By doing this he implied Clain was now part of the clan. For a murderer, he went out heroically and with grace. His holding the line and protecting the space elevator for the trio to escape in was a selflessly redemptive act by a man with no regrets.

Clain’s frustrations with Phryne come to the fore during the long ascent and he wants to know why she agreed to become the Key. It is the only way to save Nessa, who is dying. Even so, there is no guarantee of success but Phryne views herself as expendable and this upsets him greatly. It isn’t just Nessa who is damaged.

When Phryne gets defensive and lapses into talk of not being worthy again, Clain finally mans up by embracing her and telling her he loves her. This is a very important scene that directly bears on the ending. Notice that she doesn’t return the embrace and tries to stop him speaking further.

Also important is Nessa reaffirming that the three would be together forever.

The elevator arrives at a small domed satellite that Phryne refers to as a sanctuary. A ring of beautiful flowers fills the circumference and a fractal pattern emerges in the clear space. It is a mini Garden of Eden populated with small floating lights like fireflies. Truly a lovely rendered setting in a beautiful series.

Here Nessa’s memories trigger a self-made video recorded by the original Phryne 1000 years before. Even with all the information given in the series, this was a surprising glimpse into the girl who became Fractale’s God. She’s sweet, childlike, and determinedly cheerful despite fearing what is going to be done to her.

We also find out Nessa was her stuffed bunny rabbit and her imaginary best friend. Nessa is her strength, that which gets her through life and modern day Phryne watches this carefully. As the video wraps up, the other thing ancient Phryne loved besides Nessa is revealed – the Day Star song. I knew it was important from the early episodes, but I didn’t expect to simply be a thing of comfort from the original Phryne’s life.  She is also very afraid of her father.

Clain is stunned by her being Fractale’s God and one can’t blame him. Phryne seems envious because the original was able to accept “this distorted world” and still smile like Nessa. Part of the complaint about the show is the lack of explanation of why a living girl was needed for the system. Personally, I think all the hints to the answer were presented along the way and cemented by this reveal of the original Phryne.

Apparently the artificial intelligence of the Fractale system required a template. With the purpose of the system being the “freeing” of humanity from labor and worry, it needed a model that emphasized the ability to run away from harsh reality. This girl had that ability in spades, having regressed mentally to deal with the abuse she’d suffered, but being a very happy person. With Nessa being a copy of the mind of the original, we were shown just how averse she was to anything that caused unhappiness.

Fractale is a glorified playpen meant to keep everyone happy and entertained. In other words, everyone was to be kept a perpetual child. What better way to understand how to do that than use a mind old enough to solve problems but emotionally that of a child? It isn’t like the hints about this were subtle. I’d like to think people don’t need every little detail spoon fed to them, but perhaps too many years of Star Trek and Doctor Who technobabble have done permanent damage.

Phryne explains why she wants to go through with this to save the helplessly dependent people of the world, but gives Clain a veto in the matter. She feels she can now love the world because of Clain and Nessa. Acceding to Phryne’s wishes, Clain promises to take them home with him so that they can be together forever. He watches as the girl he loves goes to her likely doom. After all, Nessa is the mind and she is only the body. This is an important plot point.

A barely in there Nessa stops briefly to thank Clain and then they begin the process of merging to form the Key. The repeated theme of hide and seek appears for the final time. It appears to be how they will merge, by playing hide and seek across the world.

The two halves of the whole begin singing the Day Star song but with a specific wish, the same one Phryne had in the first episode. They want Clain’s smile to last forever and because of that wish he is unable to cry as things unfold. Important plot points.It is the last time we’ll see ten year old Nessa. I wish I could have had a daughter like her.

Cue the end theme and credits.

WARNING! THE BIGGEST OF THE BIG SPOILERS COMING!

 

 

 

 

I hate going into detail on the ending, but it is necessary to dispel  the confusion that abounds in cyberspace over what happened. Please ignore this if you figured out it was a happy ending for Phryne on your own.

Fractale is successfully rebooted and there is a time skip to one year later as the credits roll. At the village of the Granites, Enri is now leader of the clan and overseeing new recruits learning to farm in the fields. Earlier in the episode, the grandpa explained to Enri that Lost Millennium’s real purpose wasn’t to destroy Fractale but to preserve human freedom and pass it on for the future. Here he is shown to be satisfied with the fact that the system can’t be rebooted again with the Temple destroyed.

In the fields, a man is called a pervert (naughty) and that leads to Takami reflecting on the greatest pervert he ever knew. Poor Clain, the running joke refused to die in even the last episode. Hearing her brother, Enri wonders how Clain is doing.

Things wrap around to the first episode in many ways starting with seeing Clain’s house on the sea again. Inside, Clain is with the doppel family dog and cooking for himself now. He seems cheerful as he thinks on how things have changed. Gone is the boy totally reliant on Fractale for sustenance  that we first met. His adventures in the hostile world have brought a measure of maturity. It is a nice piece of social commentary on self reliance alongside the Granites scenes.

He goes upstairs where Phryne's gaunt body lies sleeping in his bed.  Addressing her as “Phryne, Nessa”, he talks about his plans for the day. From his narration, we learn they have been in a coma ever since the merger. Picking up his music player that was so prominent in the first episode, he heads back downstairs. Please consider the music player to be a metaphor for the overly plugged in society we have today. Plot point. The girl on the bed awakens and stretches.

A surprised and hopeful Clain asks: “Phryne?” When she replies her voice is different with the inflections more like that of Nessa than Phryne. Kudos to the voice actress for pulling this off.  Upon hearing the reply, his face falls and he softly says “Phryne..”  It looks like only Nessa returned and his disappointment is palpable. She goes on to say she loves the sun and “I love love.”

Managing to dredge up a slight smile, Clain calls her Nessa. The girl looks surprised and says, “Huh?” with wide eyes. He asks if she is hungry and, still looking confused, she clutches her stomach and says she might be as if it were a new sensation. Still with the slight faked smile on his face that aggravated Phryne in the first episode, he lets her know breakfast will be ready shortly. That elicits a very Nessa like shout of pleasure and he starts down the stairs.

Then she shouts his name, bringing him back up.

Very seriously and with a tone closer to Phryne, the girl tells him she loves him too and that she had ever since they first met. He never confessed his love to Nessa and Phryne never replied back to him. Therefor it’s Phryne, not Nessa, Clain’s talking with.

She goes on to thank him (something Nessa had already done) and say she’s “happy now.” Not something Nessa would say, since she wasn’t the depressed one of the two. It triggers a sequence I think was one of the best in anything I’ve watched, animated or not. We go from her happy face to the bounce of the music player hitting the floor. With the player embodying the distractions of technology, Clain drops it as soon as that which matters far more is before him – the young woman he loves. More than a few boyfriends and husbands could take a hint from that.

A startled Phryne finds herself in the embrace of the sobbing young man and gently returns it. She had been unable to do this in the space elevator. Notice her stiff body posture too, which was not something Nessa ever suffered from. She zings him for being like a baby and I have to wonder if the translation is off. Even if it isn’t, it is a clear call back to her seeing his smile as a baby on the old home movie in the beginning of the series. The English dub drops this entirely and substitutes something else.

The comment brings out laughs among the sobs as the camera pans away to the bulletin board on the wall where Clain has various photos up including the one Phryne stole from his father. The photos also imply that Clain had contact with the Granites after the Temple fell, since his camera and photos were with them. Slowly the camera zooms in on the group photo taken at the end of Episode 9. It ends with Phryne and Clain focused on. Nessa isn’t there, being a doppel, but it also symbolizes Nessa is gone.  Part of her lives on in Phryne repaired psyche, but the little girl who was so adorable is no more.

The seagull seen in the very beginning of the series returns over the coast and flies into the sun. The End.

People online got very upset by the ending, believing Phryne didn’t come back and that Clain was stuck with Nessa in her body, or worse, the original crazy girl from a millennia before. As I’ve illustrated above, they are quite wrong. That moment where Clain drops his music player was when he realized the Phryne he loved was with him again. It was powerfully and sweetly executed, mainly thanks to the writers setting us up for a very unhappy ending to the series by killing off so many characters.

Instead we got a happy ending, made a tad bittersweet because we’ll never see cute ten year old Nessa again. She was a fantastically endearing character, but like I wrote before, part of her lives on in Phryne. How marvelous it was that Phryne got to be liberated from her misery and be able to feel happiness with the boy she loved. Not to mention finally feeling able to tell him her feelings.

Though I have to be a bit snarky and note that when Clain described why he loved her, he listed all her negative traits.  A lot of those are gone now. Just saying.

Still, Clain and Phryne have found their personal paradise fulfilling the promise of the episode title.

Pity the series was a bomb in Japan, thankfully Funimation has put out a superb Blu-ray and DVD set. I would have loved to have seen a sequel with a daughter of Clain and Phryne named after Nessa for a protagonist. Maybe with a son of Enri’s for a love interest. But I refuse to write fan fiction!